A reaffirmation of Michael Jordan's greatness

I was too young to have seen Michael Jordan play live and in his prime, but I watched everything I could about him, I read a biography on him in high school and I've seen his 5 greatest games. This, combined with his stats and career achievements laid a firm foundation for me to belief wholeheartedly that he's the GOAT.

However, every so often a player will do something that makes you wonder "could we be wrong? could he be better than MJ someday?" It's okay, it's happened to all of us. Today a friend of mine linked me this video, and it's about the closest thing you can get to proof of Michael's greatness, ending any doubts I have about Lebron or KD's capacity to catch him as the GOAT.

There might be a player better than him someday, but it won't be anytime soon. This is lengthy, but worth it, time just flies by as I sat there mesmerised by the wonder that is MJ

Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time, but I am tired of him being the standard candle for greatness for every young superstar. Why must everybody be compared to Jordan? Why can't they be appreciated as their own talent. Michael Jordan never played in our generation just like he didn't play in the generations before him, Rules continuously change, coaching continuously changed and the talent and athleticism of players continuously changed. Though his resume and list of career accolades make me think of Michael Jordan as the greatest of all time, I wish that some people would not dismiss the talent of certain players just because they didn't play in his era. I'm going to give you an example both ways...

People today think that modern players are worse than those of the 80s and 90s because of hand checking. The problem here is that they only look at it from their offensive production, could you imagine if modern day players who are lightyears ahead of the 80s and 90s in terms of athleticism were aloud to hand check. Imagine the greatness that is lebron on the defensive end today and how that greatness would be amplified by allowing HIM to hancheck. His 260lbs, super human strenght would allow him to dictate where anyone would go, and he'd be a lot more difficult to get around when with the no handchekc rule he already is quasi-impossible to get by. Individual players have gotten better over the years but the rules like handchecking would allow inferior players to be great defenders. Imagine Brian Scalabrine being allowed to hand check whilst everyone else couldn;t he'd be one of the best defensive players in the league.

Now let's talk about OLD OLD school basketball. BACK int he day!!! SO many of the acholades today did not exist back in the day. Let's look at Mr Bill Russell for instance. An 11 time champion, what made him super was his defines. The problem is that awards like defensive player of the year came in later in his career (towards the end) otherwise think of how many he'd have. Also people are quick to dismiss old school players because of the lack of talent back in the day. Have people not forgotten that there were half the number of NBA teams back then than there are now. Talent was saturated on teams. Also Michael Jordan played played in the most watered down Shooting Guard era in nba history. His only competition were Clyde Drexler and Joe Dumars as well as a very young Iverson and Kobe towards the end of his career... Can the same excuse be made for him?

Let's not stray off now, Michael J is the greatest to have every played the game of basketball. Yes he did retire during his prime but that gives the chance for younger players to prove themselves as the greatest to ever play. This is not talking about what he could've been, this is talking about what he has been. He is not the Greatest of ALL time but the greatest to have played so far, and will be for a while. The NBA has only existed for just over 60 years. That is petty. Will we make the same claims about MJ's ranking 700 years from now??

Michael Wilbon did a great piece on him on Sportscenter and described his playing style as a "controlled rage". He was spot on, I was old enough to see Jordan play throughout the 90's and I do think he's the G.O.A.T.

A young MJ was freakishly athletic and amazingly skilled/fundamentally sound. A lot of people will have you believing that a jump shot wasn't something he didn't develop until later in his career, but as you can see in the video, he was money from mid-range at age 23. You can also see that he was a very good post player and even started developing that go-to quick as F drop step on the baseline.

MJ will be passed one day, but it's going to be tough. It's hard to top his complete legend. He's the blueprint. Not only was he the best, he's BY FAR the most exciting to watch too.

By the way don't get it twisted, I'm not trying to bash MJ, my only message is spare guys like Lebron, KD and D rose from the comparisons it does no justice and is unfair to focus on their flaws relative to the greatest to ever play. The media will find a flaw and say "you see he's no MJ" instead of re-iterating how he's good at this or that and praising their greatness for it. But also that speaks values to be even compared to Michael Jordan. But I also remember that back in the days, they did that to MJ as well relative to past players :P

MJ was the BEST player against the competition in his time period. you must understand that the players these days are just SO much better and even tho noone is as dominant(althougt lebron is damn near close) there are better basketball players than MJ. Lebron is definitely the best player to ever play this game and IMO its hard to believe anyone ever becoming better, im sure it will happen tho at some point in time but this guy lebron is the best up to date.

Just imagine MJ playing in one of these spread offenses surrounded by shooters and a big man that can stretch the floor. Who could check him one on one? You think James Harden shoots a lot of free-throws... MJ would be shooting more.

MJ was an old man holding his own against the league's top wings during his time with the Wizards... Imagine what he'd do to them in his prime.